LOS ANGELES — As the opioid crisis continues to ravage the United States, scientists in Los Angeles are hoping their research into cannabis can provide an alternative to powerfully addictive, potentially deadly pain medications.

“Cannabis probably can certainly help with pain,” Dr. Timothy Fong, addiction specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told KCBS-TV.

Fong, an executive member of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, said it is not clear what type of pain marijuana would be effective in treating. He said he hopes his research will be able to zero in on whether some pain that gets treated with opioids — back, headache and stomach, as examples — can be alleviated with pot.

Fong said he wants to find out how marijuana can be used to, “number one, protect individuals from addiction, and number two, potentially use it as a idea to reduce the scourge and negative consequences of